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ne Song of Touth 

Poems by 

BLANCHE SHOEMAKER 




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The Song of Touth 



P O EMS 



By Blanche Shoemaker •v\^a(rt 




Boston: Richard G, Badger 
tll^e (5^orI)aiu press 



Copyright, tqo^, by Blanche Shoemaker 
All Rights Reserved. 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two CoDies Received 

FEB 5 1906 

^ Coiyriffht Entry 



^ cojyriffm Entry ^ 
'CLASS ^&c. NO, 



75 35-^^ 



Printed at 

The G or ham Press, 

Boston, U.S.A. 



. . Look on these songs I dedicate to thee, 
Which thro' thee I began, zvhich thus I end. 



CONTENTS, 

PAGE 

Awakening 9 

Song 10 

Proximity 11 

Sea Change 12 

Dissatisfaction 13 

Rain 14 

Reluctance 15 

Love's Maturity 16 

The Inseparable 17 

Love Eternal 18 

Litany 19 

Song 20 

Silence 21 

Love's Entirety 22 

Love's Humility 23 

Return 24 

Love's Way 25 

Love's Eternity 26 

Regret 27 

Absence ■ 28 

God's Paradise 29 

Freedom 30 

The Burden 31 

Compensation 32 

Parting 33 

The Gain 34 

Fulfillment 35 

Youth Eternal 36 

The Unknozvn 37 

Choice 38 

At Dazvn 39 



PAGE 

Desolation 40 

Seasons 41 

Revelation 42 

To One No Longer Loved 43 

The Theft 44 

Surrender 45 

Carpe Diem 46 

Death-in-Love 47 

The Dread Hour 48 

Fear at Parting 49 

Pastelle 50 

The Prisoner 51 

Rondel 52 

Alliance 53 

Completion 54 

The Morrow's Joy 55 

Vita Niiora 5^ 

Conclusion 57 

Poverty 5^ 

Faithlessness 59 

Rondel 60 

Dawn 61 

The Light 62 

Love Let Dream No More 63 

Renewal 64 

Meeting and Parting 65 

Loss 66 

Solitude 67 

Love's Hours 68 

The Nun 69 

Absence 7° 

Avowal 71 



PAGE 

Life's Paradox 72 

Riches 73 

Intimations 74 

Doubt 75 

After Hours 7^ 

The Inevitable 77 

The Trinity 7^ 

The Nomads 79 

Fear 80 

Attainment 80 

The Infinite 81 

The Climax 82 

The Dream Foregone 83 

Upliftment 84 

Joy's Redemption 85 

Ennui 86 

Mockery 87 

Faith's Folly 88 

Oblivion 89 

Love Alien 90 

Opportunity 90 

Unlived Hours 91 

The Beginning 9^ 

Salvation 93 

Repletion 94 

Possession 95 



AWAKENING 

As in sweet childhood's slumberous hours a hand 
In mother's tenderness seeks for the cheek 
Of the loved one, gently disturbing sleep 
Until the child soul stirs and leaves the land 
Of dreams and wakens, half afraid to speak, — 
So was I for long years within a deep 
And solemn slumber of the soul, until 

My heart heard thee approach, and then thy 
hand 
Waked me from dreams to Love's Reality. 
And like the child with speech and soul grown 
still 
Bewildered in my joy I looked on thee, — 
And Life grew sweet and I could understand. 



SONG 

A gracious gift is love, my sweet, 
A gift from God above, my sweet, 
A grace to take much of, my sweet. 

And they who love as we, my sweet, 

Are blest by ecstasy, my sweet, 

And fashioned fond and free, my sweet. 

We love and we are blest, my sweet, 
Life-love has been our quest, my sweet, 
What care we for the rest, my sweet ? 

So love e'er love shall die, my sweet. 
To keep love ours we'll try, my sweet, 
E'er joy end in a sigh, my sweet ! 



10 



PROXIMITY 

I shall be nearer to you far away ; 
For that injustice of the world's dumb right 
Restrains us when together every day. 
But in the voiceless hours of the long night 
Visions will bring us closer till I seem 
Unconscious that my joy is but a dream. 



II 



SEA-CHANGE 

The sadness of the sea 

Rose up to me 

Speaking of hours forgot, 
Hours that are not, 

And ne'er again can be ! 

The longing of the sea 
Rose up to me ; 

Speaking of wants grown old 

Desires untold, 
And dreams that could not be. 

The wistfulness of the sea 
Rose up to me ; 

Speaking of hours gone past, 

Regrets that last 
'Till memories cease to be ! 

The gladness of the sea 
Rose up to me ; 

Speaking of joys in store 

Love evermore, 
And happiness to be ! 

The great Love of the sea 
Rose up to me ; 

Filling my heart with bliss ! 

Sweeter than this 
No Paradise could be! 

Nice, March. 

12 



DISSATISFACTION 

Aye, I am happy — so the whole world says 
Envying me life's contentment and soul's peace. 

And all the sunny blessings of my ways ! 
I want not these, — rather a soul's release 

From bondaged Joy . . the old forbidden gaze 

Of loving eyes, and Love's poor, frenzied days ! 



13 



RAIN 

The ni^ht about is still, the sea 

Sleeps passive on the shore, yet my soul hears 

The raindrops falling on the ground 

Silent as tears 

Shed without sound . . 

As the rain falls ceaselessly 

So I love thee 

Ceaselessly ! 



14 



RELUCTANCE 

Love, I cannot lose you yet ! 
Life has not been lived, so let 
Life and love awhile remain, 
Till both we have tasted of. 
Then let Life and Love both wane. 

Dear, I dare not die today 
When your love desires me stay, 
Life is ours to live and I 
Live but for your precious love, — 
Sweet, today I dare not die ! 

Of the future I know not. 
Yesterday is soon forgot, 
But today life is our own. 
Love is dear to love and prove. 
Sweet, I dare not go alone! 



15 



LOVE'S MATURITY 

I dreamed that Love had reached maturity. 

And stood full-grown and perfect by my side 

With still'd desires and passions satisfied, 
The sweet embodiment of ecstasy. 

With fond maternal pride I looked upon 
The being I had reared so perfectly, 

Symbol of all the joy my soul had won. 
But as I knelt beside the shrine of this 

My vision, lo ! There rose within me wild 
Longings tempestuous . . I woke from bliss 

To find my love was yet a little child ! 



i6 



THE INSEPARABLE 
To A. 

There is no part of life that knows not you. 
No corner of my life that has not been 
Made sweeter by you ; not a day has seen 

Its golden death but you have watched it too. 

No sun has shed its dawn upon my soul, 

No Spring has come, nor sight of a heart's woe, 
No living hour of life that does not know 

You and love's ways, inseparable and whole! 



17 



LOVE ETERNAL 

As a fond child who wakes amazed to find 
1 hat It IS nearing- its maturity, 

Kejoicmg leaves its unwaked world behind — 
bo was It when Your love first stirred in me 
Wakmg a dormant soul with ecstasy 

Tu ''^^^T ?^ ^ "^^^^^^ ^o^^d dreamed of 
Ihus did Life come to me, making Your Love 
A proud possession, — mine Eternally » 



iS 



LITANY 

Soul of my soul, fashioned for love, 
Out of the sea of my life's desires, — 
(Lord, thou art kind to a soul that aspires !) 
Grant me abandonment ! Remove 
The burden of passion grown too old . . 

Soul of my soul, fashioned for love, 
Out of the sea of my youth's desires, 
(Lord, thou art kind to a soul that aspires !) 
Grant me abandonment ! Remove 
The burden of love-tamed and love untold . 

Soul of my soul, fashioned for love. 

Out of the sea of my soul's desires 

(Lord, thou art kind to a soul that aspires!) 

Grant me abandonment ! Remove 

The burden of denial when love is by! 

Soul of my soul, fashioned for love, 

Out of the sea of my lost desires, 

(Lord, thou art kind to a soul that aspires !) 

Grant me abandonment! Remove 

The burden of unlived hours that die ! 



19 



SONG 

"I love you, sweet ! I love you endlessly." 
What infinite joy these words invoke for me ; 
The meaning of all life their utterance 
Without which life would cease. Merely to say 
I love you, love you throughout one whole day 
Delights my spirit, seeming to enhance 
The charm of living since so merged in yours. 
Mine is an endless love that e'er endures, 
Supreme in yielding, — happiest to repeat 
"I love you, love you endlessly, my Sweet!" 

Nice, April lo. 



20 



SILENCE 

Silence is meant for love. 
Songless the sound of the summer sea, 
Breathless the soul with expectancy, 
Hushed the long hours rapturously, 
Silence is meant for love. 

Silence is meant for love. 
Stilled is the song of the swallow-band, 
Languor wanders throughout love's land. 
Mute the caress of a loving hand, 
Silence is meant for love. 



21 



LOVE'S ENTIRETY 

To H. 

The anguish of deHght one feels to wane ; 
The pang of joy diminishing, and love 

Grown cold and passionless within the heart. 
Remembrance verged into Regret again 
And that desire of joy once tasted of 
A vague fear of the future that will part 
Me wholly from my joyfulness. A sense 
Of happiness grown old, and perishing 

Within my soul the sweetness of all things ' 
Life's essence dwindling, dear love going hence, 
My joy each long hour aging with the Spring 
As dies the song some outcast swallow sings. 



22 



LOVE'S HUMILITY 

Humbly I lay myself down at thy feet 
And beg thy mercy and they help ; O, sweet, 
Sorrow has chastened my desires and tears 
Made pure a heart that has known passionate 

years. 
Give ear unto my plaintive plea and make 
A love's allowance for our old love's sake; 
And when I come, Beloved, disdain me not 
But for the sake of love, once our glad lot. 
Help me with tenderness, for, look! I lay 
My helpless soul down at thy feet today ! 



23 



RETURN 

Dear, I have naught to offer thee 

In return for all the poesy 

Thou hast given me through thy love. 

Golden gifts I have none of 

Nor sweet ways gleaned from above; 

Love itself we deem divine 

Therefore, dear, I offer mine 

Meagre though it is I give 

Every hour of life I live. 

Every pulse of mine is thine, — 

Soul and sense, desire and speech 

All things that are in Love's reach 

I lay at Love's shrine. 

Be content, dear, I give all 

That is in my power to call. 



24 



LOVE'S WAY 

Could Love but have its way! - 
Then Life would sweeter grow 
And tears shed long ago 

Would turn to laughter at Love's play, — 

Could Love but have its way ! 

Could Love but have its way! 

Dear hands would loose the bars 

That keep us from the stars ; 
And Love's height would be reached one day- 
Could Love but have its way! 

Could Love but have its way! 

E'er by denial 'tis slain. 

Quench all the longing pain 
In one long-dreamed caress and say: 
"Let Love but have its way !" 



25 



LOVE'S ETERNITY 

Question not my love, dear heart, it is too great. 
It stands a towering scheme of happiness 
'Neath which sweet-sheltered resting place I wait 
The morrow's certainty of joy. Unless 
You choose to love me more, Belov'd, than this, 
Doubt not my fondness for it lies as deep 
As some unconquerable scheme in bliss 
Flows on, unheeding snows and storm. I weep 
With joy to think I love you so, for we 
Inhabit Love's divine Eternity. 



26 



REGRET 

Dear, when my hour to die shall come 

And Love has grown forever dumb, 

And o'er my soul Death's shadows creep, 

Before I go at last to sleep 

Beloved let 

Me utter but the one regret 

My soul shall keep. 

Dear, there are few wrongs I have done 
I would undo ; of sins not one 
Would I resign. But, these above, 
I grieve for love we knew not of. 
Did we always 

Live to the full in our past days? 
Took we sufficient Love? 



27 



ABSENCE 

I find no peace where thou art not ; I pass 
From scene to scene and all things seem the 

same. 
Day differs not from night ; Life has no aim 
For in Love's absence all is void ; alas 
There is no joy apart from you. I pace 
From dawn to dark seeking a resting place 
Wherein to find oblivion of my love. 
No corner of the world that knows not of 
Your ways or holds no memories of your face. 
Here was it that we parted ; or close by 
First fell your tears or first I heard you sigh . . 
Thus do I wander, ever coveting 
To find love and love's peace one day and bring 
Lost life back to my heart before I die! 



28 



GOD'S PARADISE 

Thou art more perfect than God's Paradise. 
Sweeter by far than violets bloomed in May, 
Fonder and fairer than the heavenly prize, 
God's Paradise. 

Fuller of ripened life than ripest day, 
Youth glowing in the gladness of thine eyes. 
Sweet-living perfectly, — could life devise 
God's Paradise 

To rival thee, Beloved, in any way? 
Being so perfect, dear, within thee lies 
God's Paradise; 

And if in loving thee, love takes away 

My right to heav'n, I gain in thee the prize — 

God's Paradise! 



29 



FREEDOM 

Oh, to be freed from Yesterday ! 

And as a bird take wings and fly away, 

From where pain was into the paths that know 

No sorrow or heart's woe . . 

To merely spread my wings and wish to go ; 

Thus leaving life and all its goblets drained, 

For wine of other loves and hours, — 

For distant scents of unknown flow'rs, — 

For paths of joy more unconstrained. 

Oh, to be freed from Yesterday 

And as a bird take wings and soar away ! 



30 



THE BURDEN 

The burden of lost-living; days that cry 
Like plaintive children to be nursed again. 
Lips that were once allied apart in pain, 
Desires once urgent that submissive lie, 
And blissful hours of ease that mockingly, 
Like unbloomed flowers arise in ghostly glee. 
. . The burden of lost-living; a caress 
That maddens in its unreturningness ! 



31 



COMPENSATION 

The warm grass under my heart ; 
Above me the kindly sky, 

Bird-songs thrilling the air, 
Faint shadows wandering by. 
. . My soul the while aware 
That you and I are apart. 

The grass grown over my heart, 
My body enwrapped in clay ; 

Bird-songs stilled, and the air, 
Emptied of Love away, 

. . My soul the while aware 
You and I are no more apart. 



32 



PARTING 

''Farewell?" how could I say it dear? 

The world would fade before my sight ; 

Sound cease, and day give way to night 
Eternal darkness reappear . . 

Yesterday's ghost of Joy would come 
To mock the Morrow's barrenness. 
Hope cowering as unhappiness 

Would hover by with lips struck dumb. 

And Love outcast, with wails unheard 
Would wander with affrighted eyes 
To where men's hopes have ceased to rise. 

''Farewell ?" I do not know the word ! 



33 



THE GAIN 

Lost, loved and soul-lamented, dear, our ways 
Were severed yesterday. You are no more 
And in the memory of our Joy I pour 

My poor, heart's sadness over our dear days. 

Lost, loved and soul-lamented, dear. The pain 
Of parted lips and hands that no more meet, 
The solace of some future days too sweet, — 

Yet, losing you, I lose you but to gain ! 



34 



FULFILLMENT 

My soul within me stirs as some starved, unquiet 

bird; 
Restless with instincts unappeased, hunger un- 
heard, 
Passions ungratified and yearnings that have 

stirred 
No sympathy in any one. Thus passed the years 
Of loneliness and waste desire watered with my 

tears, — 
Unceasingly the same, and no applause that 

cheers 
Or agonized fulfillment of old want laid bare 
Can compensate for all the Past. My soul has 

care 
Of love — and love alone. The longing that can 

dare 
The past's old desire, the future's unreality . . 
Thus stirs my soul, craving to be once free 
In love's fulfillment ; the Real hour that longs to 

be! 



35 



YOUTH ETERNAL 

Youth with its flowered hours and sunny ways, 
Its brilliant hopes that mounting, soar on higfh, 
Craving to live in each excessive phase, 
Loving dear life, dreading the hour to die. 

Youth with its frenzied eagerness to prove 
Experience, and thirsting for its joy. 
Glad at the dawn, the noon, the night, and love — 
The food and sustenance its wants employ. 

Youth without change or end, dawn without 

night, 
Succession of exuberant ecstasy, 
One long, sweet paean of passionate delight, — 
This is my dream of an Eternity. 



36 



THE UNKNOWN 

Bewildered, dazed, you left me with your love ; 

Dreaming of joys I knew not how to prove. 
And stunned into submission by caress, 
Yours was the right to humble me or bless 
My soul with lasting love's dear happiness. 
But ah, I was a child, afraid to guess. 

At what it dared to take so little of. 



37 



CHOICE 

Ah who of us has loved and yet would not? 
Which one would not reclaim the old time pain 
Just to renew the rapture once again ; 

The hours memorial and unforgot. 

Ah who of us loved well would not once more 
Endure the ecstasy intolerable, — 
The joy of hope, the final tears that tell 

The sad tale of a love that has passed o'er. 

Ah who of us has loved and yet would say : 
"Give me the loveless, unimpassioned way?" 



38 



AT DAWN 

She looks on me with cold, cruel eyes that speak 
Dark Hatred, and the lips that last night said 
A thousand times I love you, are compressed, 
And ashy white the pallor of her cheek, — 
Flow'rs are fled 

In the flower-like fair face and breast, — 
Thus do we gaze into each others' eyes. 
Poor spectres watchful of their loves demise : 
Passion is dead. 



39 



DESOLATION 

How long the days are, dear, without 
The comfort of your love ; how sad 
The silence of the night when tears 
Cannot appease . . Were I to doubt 
You, dearest, all the joy I had 

Would dwindle in the dust of years. 



40 



SEASONS 

While Spring is here and sweet the amorous 

hours, 
The evening- breezes fragrant with June flowers, 
The long nights flushed with Love's expectancy, 
The days divined for youth, all redolent of 
Life's glad springtime of youthful mystery. 
. . The Spring is here, — yet, God ! we cannot 

love! 

But while December hangs upon the heart. 
Its passionless hours that rend a love apart, 
And dim the days and void of soul's delight, 
A shadowy darkness over everything, — 
Yet, through the wintry and unending night. 
We love ! And then our souls discover Spring ! 



41 



REVELATION 

What is the surest way to show my love? 
Reveal the tenderness my full heart holds, 
And all my passionate adoration prove? 
Shall all the loveliness my love beholds 
In thee be praised in love's sublimest tongue ? 
Shall hands that worship crown thee god among 
His worshippers ? Or shall I wreathe thy way 
With simple flowers grown in a youthful heart ? 
What glowing words of eloquence could say 
The half of how I love ? Love is a part 
Of life as is the sunlight at day's break, — 
Love without birth or end, unceasing, sweet. 
. . Ah, I shall only love, bowed at thy feet. 
Giving myself to thee for love's sweet sake ! 



42 



TO ONE NO LONGER LOVED 

We love no more ; the fire of youth has died 
Within our hearts ; for long we strove to hide 
The truth, until the truth untruth beHed! 

We love no more ; and Life's significance 
Has dwindled in the dawning of a glance ; 
Love can no longer our poor lives enhance. 

We love no more! Vanished is youth's sweet 

sense 
And age has lost its passionate recompense. 
. . This is the end our destiny invents! 



43 



THE THEFT 

Lonely and sad her soul sought mine and laid 

Its sorrows at my feet and much afraid 

Begged help of me . . and I, filled with delight 

Calmed her distress and stayed her in her flight 

Until her wings fluttered no more and she 

Found rest within a harbor happily 

. . I gave her all I had and from my hands 

She took my offerings as one who stands 

The rightful owner of its Joy ; until 

My life impoverished grew . . 

And I, the keeper, knew 

The hungered soul at length had had its fill. 

And lo ! one day I found her gone . . and then 

I prayed she might take my poor life again ! 

London. 



44 



SURRENDER 

How shall I keep your love? By what sweet 

schemes 
Or subterfuge devised with utmost skill, — 
Or passionate protestations that will fill 
Your heart with certitude? Devotion seems 
Unending when one loves and yet love fears 
From day to day its end eventual ; 
Devotion's dismal death whose dear recall 
Is vanished e'en beyond reclaiming tears . . 
Therefor I seek to keep thy love, retain 
The flower of fondness and the bloom of need, 
The freshness of delight, the joy in pain, 
The glow of eager want. Dear, if I plead 
Close-kneeling at your feet submissively 
Will Love's surrender hold your love for me? 



45 



CARPE DIEM 

Live in the Present, dear ; 'tis all thou hast. 
What share have we within the happiest Past 
When memory's visions dim and no things last? 

What do we own of all the future's store? 

Uncertain joys allure us o'er and o'er 

Yet, when the morrow comes we own no more. 

What of past tears, or days of love gone by ; 
We have but little of their wine, and why? 
Because as all things live, so all things die ! 

What of this hour? What of Love's hastened 

night ? — 
'Tis all we have to call our own aright : 
This is Love's bitterness and Love's delight! 



46 



DEATH-IN-LOVE 

The dawn glows in the East ; without the day 

Grows into gladdened May. 

The hopes our hearts have borne ; 

The desires our joys have fed, 

Love's deeds we have foreborne, 

The wealth our souls have worn, — 

All cease . . Can Love be dead? 

The fire dies on the hearth ; without the night 

Wanes into undelight ; 

The songs once sung, the words our hearts have 

said, 
The lips our lips have wrung 
Are stilled and lie among 
Life's ashes . . Love is dead ! 



47 



THE DREAD HOUR 

Dear, if the hour should ever come when we 
Should undesiring meet each others' eyes — 
Unlonging for the kiss that satisfies 

A labored love, long lost to mastery 

Then I should take your hand and' gently say 
Beloved, the dream is past . . we meet to lay 
Ine soul of our old love fore'er away." 
Ah, let us now be happy while we may. 



48 



FEAR AT PARTING 

Beloved, I cannot let you go from me 1 

Into the great world's wide and questioning gaze, 

Forgetful of our vanished joyous days, 

Recalling happiness but dubiously. 

Beloved, I cannot let you go from me ! 

Beloved, I dare not let you go from me, 
To leave me lonely with but love's recall. 
To thus deflower my ways of life and all 
The sunny blessings of Love's harmony. 
Beloved, I dare not let you go from me. 



49 



PASTELLE 

With troubled eyes and lips bereft of speech, 

Nearer I leaned to where my soul saw you. 

Only the joy of a last lingering view 
Before you were beyond my spirit's reach. 

Only a look, Belov'd, and that was all, 
To leave me lonely without Love's respite, 

Only a touch of hands to help me call 
Love back — and then you went into the night! 



50 



THE PRISONER 

I am the prisoner of my love for thee. 
Fettered in fondness, bound in loving bond, 
Imprisoned in ties of loving fantasy 
With ne'er a thought, desire, or dream beyond 
Love's bondaged hours of intimacy fond. 
Alone art thou impow'red to set me free ; 
Thy lips my sole release and liberty 
Arousing life again. Ah, sweet, although 
I seem love's prisoner, 'tis not wholly so; 
For though the prisoner of my love, I know 
Love's liberation but in loving thee ! 



51 



RONDEL 

Born within my soul that stirred 
In sweet pride at being's start, 
Born to utter love's first word — 
Child of my heart! 

Reared in safest care apart, 
From the tainting world and heard 
As the cadence of my heart. 

Fondness that love's lips averred, 
All my own till death's cold dart 
Pierce the love my soul preferred — 
Child of my heart! 



52 



ALLIANCE 

Your image is immured within my heart . . 
Dear love, and as the vacant hours go by 
My way is bright as, are the Heavens that He 
Illumed by stars at night. We are apart 
And yet, when tears into my own eyes start 
I hear your soul within my own soul cry. 

We are incorporate, belov'd, — as one 
Sole being we exist ; in joy or woe 
Our pulses quicken or our hearts grow slow 
Together with vague fears ; when life is done 
Thus shall we die united with love won 
For all Eternity! Forever so. 

Biarritz. 



S3 



COMPLETION 

Life has no more in it, belov'd, for we 
Have drained the cup of happiness until 
Our Hps grew mute with too much ecstasy. 
Infatuate love, have we not had our fill 
Of that delicious joy so few can know? 
Have we not lived so fully that to go 
Back through the love-thronged past would sure- 
ly seem 
Like threading one's way through a vanished 

dream ? 
. . Life has no more in it, Belov'd, — Our 

hands 
Have touched upon the Joy of God's own lands. 



54 



THE MORROW'S JOY 

Oh, God be praised for the dear morrow's joy, 
For that undawned, desired day's deHght 
Which is a balm to souls long comfortless ; 

Oh Solace that no Time can e'er destroy, 
Sad hope's delirium, spirit's luring sight, 
Leading me into fancied happiness. 



55 



VITA NUOVA 

Satiated with things insatiable, — 
My heart o'er- wearied from Love known too well. 
My soul's flight broken by desires that dwell 
Too deeply rooted, undeniable, — 

. . One day You looked on me with kindly eyes 
Wherein I saw the dawn of new Life rise, 
And all my senses in a mute surprise, 
Unwearied, woke to dawn that never dies. 



56 



CONCLUSION 

Sweet, let life end for us e'er dear love wane, 
A poor, neglected shadow by our sides ; 
Speechless and wan, whose every sight derides 
The old, mad moments of reality 
When love was sweet and seemed not sad or vain. 
Let death o'er-creep our souls a welcome friend 
Saving the sorrow of seeing our love end, — 
With lips on lips in close kissed sympathy. 
Then let death come . . We shall be spared the 

pain 
Of poor love perishing and poor love's wane ! 



57 



POVERTY 

To A. W. 

Before the greatness of thy love I stand 

Cowering- and dumb ; as one touched by the hand 

Of some Divinity. I am afraid 

To take the Happiness thy love has laid 

At my poor feet. Alas, my soul is planned 

For poverty alone. Thou dost demand 

A love as great as thine own love is grand. 

I cannot give what thou dost want, — dismayed 

Before a love like thine I turn away. 

I am too poor ! Leave me to go my way. 



58 



FAITHLESSNESS 

Just as a child brings forth its most prized toy 
Giving it to its mother's hand to hold, 

Trusting and fond in its first confidence, — 

So was it when we parted. A heart's joy 

Was mine when deep within the nurtured fold 
Of your dear arms I laid a trust ; and thence 

We went our ways . . but after many years 

When I returned, our love was bathed in tears. 
For, dear, I found you faithless and my trust 
A heart's poor idol shattered into dust. 



59 



RONDEL 

Out of the darkness, like a star that falls, — 

Sweeter and stranger than a sudden thought, 
The wakening of delight that never palls — 
So Love is wrought. 

Out of the day as out of dawn that caught 

The sudden refluence of a wave that calls 
In accents sweet the tune its own heart taught, 

Once flashed the dear delight my soul ap- 
palls, — 
A touch of hands, a kiss our lips have sought, — 
Just as life dawns thus my glad soul recalls 
So Love is wrought. 



60 



DAWN 

I have seen the dawn, Beloved, from where we 
stand, 
The past looms sweet in sadness and the days 
To come are glad to our heart's eager gaze . . 
For years we have traversed the dark, our 
ways. 
Apart so long, — but now, give me your hand 
And we shall journey to the Promised Land. 



6i 



THE LIGHT 

As one who looks into the dark and sees 

Afar the gHmmer of a light half-hid, 
And, fearing, wonders if on hands and knees 

He could attain the light, and thereby rid 
His anxious soul of all the unlit ways, — 
So was I groping in the dark of days 

Without your love . . Beyond, it shimmered 
sweet 

Beckoning me on, until with faltering feet 
I reached the light of Love's felicities! 



62 



LOVE LET US DREAM NO MORE 

Love let us dream no more, we must awake! 
Forgetting all the dreamful days and shake 
The slumber from our souls for Love's sweet 
sake. 

Long have we dreamed and slumbered ; now the 

day 
Of wakening comes, let us love while we may. 

No more can visionary joys serve well 

As those dear intimate hours of Love's sweet 

spell, — 
For ah, Reality alone can tell 

The meaning of all life, and right our wrong. 
We must awake and live for we have slumbered 
long. 



63 



RENEWAL 

Let me one moment find forgetfulness of thee. 
For one hour's space be quit of Love's bonds 

binding me; 
Gay to behold the world and laugh again and see 
Thing^s sweet or sad thro' eyes not steeped in 

mystery. 
And then, dear one, having seen my heart once 

free 
Let me return afresh to Love and loving thee ! 



64 



MEETING AND PARTING 

To G. C. 

Soul that was joy to meet, 
Meeting too sadly sweet, 
Sweetest because so fleet, — 
Soul that was joy to meet! 
. . All that we love will pass, 
Sweet things die first, alas. 
And ripened love dies just 
As unripe passion must. 
Soul that I met and passed. 
Touched hands and longed to love 
Meeting to part ; what of 
The spell that could not last? 



65 



LOSS 

Were I to lose thee dear, what then? 
In all Life's lonely way there'd be 
Only a shadow of memoried harmony. 
Oblivion where joy was and pain, 
In place of bliss, the heavy dread 
Of vacant, loveless hours to come, 
And for delight a heart grown numb. 
Eyes blind through tears unceasing shed. 
Were I to lose thee dear, why then 
Life would forsake me ne'er to come again. 



66 



SOLITUDE 

I cannot live in loneliness ; the hours 
Droop into nothingness as fading flow'rs, 
Deprived of sunshine, fall into the grave. 
My soul is restive ; I forever crave 
Companionship. Life is our own to live, 
Yet we deny our longings, too soon give 
The soul its prison bars. All solitude 
Is sin against the soul that seeks to soar. 
Alone, my being starves, without heart-food, 
Life will succumb till love return no more! 



67 



LOVE'S HOURS 

The close-companioned hours of sympathy, 
When with joined hands and meeting lips, the 

day 
Of final Joy seems not so far away ; 

These are the hours that mean so much to me ! 

When sheltered in your arms most tenderly, 
Kissed overmuch and re-born in your heart, 
The severing day not drawing us apart ; 

These are the hours that mean so much to rne ! 

The subtle Joy of Love's first harmony, 
The mystery of lips articulate. 
When souls re-born in hope anticipate 

The life-long Love — these hours mean much to 
me ! 



68 



THE NUN 

Oh wasted life of lovelessness. Thou hast 
Not had thine hour of joy ; Life has grown past 
Thy passionless reach, love is beyond recall . . . 
Only the dim and unlit way awaits ; 
Thy prayers must comfort when thy wants appall, 
Thy sinless nights make palely chaste thy cheek, 
Thy life renounced make sweet what thy soul 

hates. 
. . Lone vigil of desire grown old and weak, — 
The desert of virginity that knows 
Instead of love's oasis death's repose. 



69 



ABSENCE 

"Where art thou, love, to-night?" my starved 

soul cries 
Seeking within the darkness for your eyes, — 
Groping for lips afar. My soul replies : 
"Thou art not here" and life within me dies ! 

Why art thou not beside me sweet, I cry! 
Heart-harbored in our love we two could lie 
Oblivious of the world, passing life by, — 
Yet love, thou wilt not come until I die. 



70 



AVOWAL 

Sweet sheltered spot of Love's first utterance ; 
Lulled by the melody of water's song, 
Close-shadowed in the intimate dusk-time long 
And sweetened by a first impassioned glance, — 
Paths odorous with fragrance of pale flow'rs 

When hand close held in hand and heart on 

heart 
Lured by the loveliness of Love's first hours, 
We wandered wakening to each loving art, — 
Two mingling souls that met when love-lips met, 
Within a heaven of joyous mystery, 
With Love's avowal heart-uttered . . Ah hfe, 

let 
Us wander thus into Eternity. 



71 



LIFE'S PARADOX 

Souls that have Hved ! To thee I offer praise, 
A reverential homage for the days 

Brimful of garnered blisses ye have known ; 

Hours of oblivious joy, which death alone 
Could lessen of their charm . . Ah ye who live 

Or ye who in the wayward Past have sown 
The Joy of Life, — to thee all praise I give ! 

Souls that have never lived ! But died without 
Desiring life, — for thee I sadly weep. 
Ye who are wrapped in that eternal sleep 

Knowing not of joy, or what life was about. 

What compensated for your loss ? The years 
Of passive lethargy, — the barren heights 
Lost to the loveliest of Love's delights? 

. . For ye, poor souls, the world sheds all its 
tears ! 



72 



RICHES 

She is rich of body yet sad at heart. 

Weighed down with the wealth of the world, she 

dwells 
In a realm of satisfied ease, with a part 
Of love for her own ; yet her forced smile tells 
She is rich of body yet poor of heart. 

She is poor of body, yet glad at heart. 
Deprived of the world's rich store she dwells 
Impoverished, alone, and from wealth apart ; 
Yet the peaceful smile on her wan face tells 
She is poor of body yet rich of heart ! 



73 



INTIMATIONS 

To J. 

Today we loved and yet today we part, — 
Glad in the memory of our perfect love ; 
Love not yet blossomed to the full, sweetheart, 
But fair and fragile, sparely taken of. 
When loving lips met mine, dear one, I thought 
Of sweeter hours to come, and sorrowed not 
At parting from you. For love this day wrought 
Sweet intimations of love's future lot ! 



74 



DOUBT 

Would God that I were dead rather than doubt 
Your dear, desired love for me. Because 

My soul could never wholly do without. 
Let me accept your fondness, for the flaws 

In passion one is happiest not to seek. 

So love, your lips appeased upon my cheek. 

And then, — oblivion of the hours about ! 



75 



AFTER HOURS 

What follows after Love? As in the wake 
Of golden hours of day, close follows night 
Deflowering life of all its dear delight ; 
So oft, it is with love, if we will take. 
So we must face the aftermath and make 
Remembrance compensate. 

What follows after love ! alas we know 
Only too well the solitude to be, 
W^ith lips estranged, hearts void of sympathy 
And eyes wherein love long has ceased to glow. 
Oh dead desire, oh love-sweet long ago, — 
Can memory compensate? 



76 



THE INEVITABLE 

The hour I fear above all other hours, — 
The power I fear above all other powers, — 
The dread, inevitable day when we must meet 
Estranged and passionless ; having lived the 

sweet 
Strong hours of loving through until they ceased ; 
'Till Love's extravagance made Love appeased ! 



77 



THE TRINITY 

We met and loved, and now, dear one, we part ! 
Thou to thy world unknown to me, and I 
To where thy memory will never die. 

Since love so deep is rooted in my heart. 

We met and loved . . and now, dear one, fare- 
well ! 

Fondly clasp hands in love immutable ; 

And let me go my way. Thou mayst depart 
Yet where Love is, I am, and so thou art ! 



78 



THE NOMADS 

Wandering ever on the face of earth 

From dark to dawn, — this is their part from 

birth. 
Happy and free in Nature's constancy 
With ne'er a care of any other day 
vSave that which is ; the sweet immunity 
From toil, ambitions or regrets that weigh. 
Proud in their carelessness, unshamed to meet 
The morrow's great uncertainty, and free 
Each morn from Life's distasteful yesterday. 
Wand'ring beneath the stars in night-times sweet 
Into Eternity 

Without a fear, a hope, regret or tie. 
Happy until shall dawn their day to die ! 



79 



FEAR 

Bowed down beneath the burden of a love 

He cannot hope to bear, man shrinking stands, 
Weighed down by Cowardice with trembhng 
hands 

Fearing what he has known so Httle of ! 



ATTAINMENT 

We reached Love's height but yesterday, and 

drew 
The fullness from Life's cup, intent to rue 
The long, slow hours that had led up to it. 
Upon the summit now we pause, and sit 
With arms entwined, looking upon the past 
Our happy lips allied unto the last — 
Eternal Ecstasy made exquisite ! 



80 



THE INFINITE 

Immeasurably I love thee dear, as one 

In yearning for the infinite, finds that near 

Love is, — wherein life ends and is begun! 

'Tis vain to try to utter to thee, dear, 

How great my fondness is. Words can express 

Only a portion of our happiness 

Never a heart that cared as mine could tell 

How much it loved ! Mayhap it be too well. 

Nimes, April, 1905. 



81 



THE CLIMAX 
To A. W. 

Beloved, what is the end of all our Joy ? 

What climax of delight shall our souls reach, — 
What measures shall we finally employ 

In efforts to maintain our love in each. 
Thro' years of struggle we shall come at last 

To some sweet, summit of soul's ecstasy, 

And then what will the after-moments be? 
A new world found? — or sighs for joys gone 
past? 



82 



THE DREAM FOREGONE 

Today there was no dawn, Beloved ; the morn 
Came changeless o'er the sky and found me worn 
And weary with my vigil of the night ; 
Ah love, thou didst not come and in my plight 
I prayed for death rather than see the light. 

. . At last through lack of love the night-time 

waned. 
And peace, the peace my soul had but regained, — 
Gave way to nameless anguish unconstrained ; 
Before my famished sight the dayHght crept, — 
Day without dawn or joy and poor Love wept 
A specter of unwelcomeness forlorn. 



83 



UPLIFTMENT 

Blest, dear, among all women in the blessing of 
thy love, 
Sublimely blest in passionate quest, 
Divinely raised among those praised 
On mortal earth to realms of heavenly praise 
above. 

Sweetened and strengthened in the sweetness of 
thy love, 
Immortal made through love's sure aid 
Richly endowed, passionately proud, 
Thus dwells my soul full-blest soaring in realms 
above. 



84 



JOY'S REDEMPTION 

Oh world of joy disclosed this day of days! 

Oh dawning of delights so manifold 

My soul re-born, rejoices to behold. 
The sudden sweetness of this day repays 
A spirit's past of loveless, unlit ways. 

Oh world of Joy renounced in hours grown 
old. 

This day's delight will all my life remould ! 



85 



ENNUI 

The meanings of all things expire, — 

The sun fades o'er my way and night's desire 

Is paled into fatigue; Oh soul of mine 

That sees no joy or interest anywhere 

Why art thou blind and worn? Life once was 

thine 
The maddest life Love gave to man's despair, 
Riotous hours of passionate delight — 
Of wine-red lips and roses reddening night . . 
This is a death-in-life ; oh love, love's tire, — 
The languid lapse of souls from their desire ! 



86 



MOCKERY 

Hours that were once so sweet, ah mock me not ! 
Look not upon my loveless days with scorn. 
Now that my plight is changed, have I forgot 
The joyous hours that once were all to me? 
Oh old-time memories ! oh sympathy 
Sublime and lost, — lost e'er it was reborn. 
Hours once so passing sweet, ah mock me not ! 



87 



FAITH'S FOLLY 

The folly of perfect faith, — alas ! though we 

Bow at the shrine of the sublimest god 
The hour will come when our idolatry 
Will serve as naught, and we shall kneeling see 
The shattered remnants of our shrine down- 
trod. 
Put not your trust in things that are, but lay 
Faith in the coming of an undawned day ! 



88 



OBLIVION 

Ah, would that I could find oblivion 

From thee and Love, the twain that rend my 

heart ! 
For I have striven even to depart 

From love of thee through absence, but I won 
My victory but to find surrender when 
Thou didst return to re-possess again. 

It is contending with a force of Life 

To leave thee, when the power of life contrives 
To bind inseparably our separate lives. 

For were the world less of thee, — days less rife 
Of thy reflected loveliness, then I 
Could leave thee in my wilderness to die. 



89 



LOVE ALIEN 

Yea, I am rich in worldly goods, — the fire 
Of flesh is in abeyance and my hands 
Are full of flowers from the fairest lands. 

Yet I am sad ; to what I do aspire 

I cannot have, for love in silence stands 

An alien to my heart and heart's desire ! 



OPPORTUNITY 

Look how life passes hourly, dear, and we 

Stand by with hopeful hearts that have no 

speech. 
The fruit of life is here within our reach 

Yet we are blind and disinclined to see. 

Each moment Joy grows less and Youth departs 
And shadows dim to-morrow's mystery, 
While Time on wings of fire burns rapidly 

Over the embers of our aging hearts. 

Life is so fleet ! and Opportunity 

Is but a moment's breath that unfanned dies, 
And love will wither here before my eyes 

E'er I have had the share that was for me. 



90 



UNLIVED HOURS 

Hours that have never been ! Sweet hours that 
yearn 
To be ; and fond longings that ceaselessly 
Beg life, and dreams that crave Reality. 

These are the daily sorrows that I turn 

O'er in my soul, lamenting joy unknown ; 
An undawned day's delight tormenting me 
With its unknown, imaged felicity, 

And bliss unrecognized in days long flown. 

. . Hours that have never been, — Love's hours 
that yearn 

To be, — ah, dear, from these I cannot turn ! 



91 



THE BEGINNING 
To A. W. 

A touch of hands, — my soul again is born 
Into a realm sublime of wondrous ease, 
Full of the calm of Love's first mysteries, 

And freed from fetters that so long were worn. 

A touch of lips, — beyond my soul's recall, 
And then the wakening of a sterile heart, 
A glimpse of Love's Eternity! Thou art 

The beginning of all things, the end of all ! 



92 



SALVATION 

Lift me that I may see the dawn again ! 
Put back the misery of a heart's worn pain, 
Give me the gHmpse of joy that will not wane. 

Raise me that famished glances once may gaze 
Upon the flowered foot paths of Love's ways, 
Illumined by the light of future days. 

Lift me that I may once, contented, see 
Dawn breaking o'er our worn world wistfully, 
And then, — a vision of our souls set free! 



93 



REPLETION 

My love of You fills all my nights and days ; 
There are no more relentless dawns that cry 
To my poor heart "why is your love not by?" 
For everywhere I turn, where'er I gaze, 
My soul sees you and love, the twain whose 

praise 
I could die chanting. Lo ! there is no night 
Of uncompanioned want ; no hour above 
Hope's rapture, or unlit through lack of love. 
Life is no more forlorn of its delight, 
But with a love's repletion sweet despite 
Time's flight and Love's own end eventual 
Foreshadowed in our hopes and joys recall. 
Now Passion brims my life, sweet, care not what 
The future holds ; Today Love is our lot ! 



94 



POSSESSION 

Would I were yours — and the world might then 

end! 
Yours for Eternity's time and the grave, 
Yours in the bond of a love that could brave 
Doubtful to-morrow, uncertain to-day ; 
Love that could old-time regrets quite allay, 
Infinite love that no Time could expend ! 
Ceaseless desire and an unending need, — 
Heaven our own to ignore or to heed. 
Would I were yours — and the world might then 

end ! 



95 



FEB 5 1905 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



018 360 412 



